The newest coaches' poll reveals a tie between Loyola and UMass,
with each receiving 193 points and Loyola earning six first-place
votes to UMass' four.

My vote goes to Loyola. Some may argue for Cornell as well. The
Big Red is 9-1, lost in overtime against Virginia in its second
game without injured Rob Pannell, and has beaten Denver (in
overtime), Army and Syracuse. But overall, Cornell's opponents'
record is 49-58 (.457). A win to end the regular season against
Princeton and a strong Ivy League tournament can help its cause.
And if Pannell comes back from the foot injury – there hasn't
been an update out of Ithaca as we approach the early end of his
projected timetable for return – all bets are off.

2. Maryland-Johns Hopkins

When I tweeted Saturday that Baltimore Ravens head coach John
Harbaugh and New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick (friend
of Dave Pietramala) were both on the sideline at the Johns
Hopkins-Maryland game on Saturday, it elicited one reader reply
that said "Baseball is dead."

Indeed, ESPNU's opening to the 108th meeting between the local
rivals did the game's hype and the sport justice, showing the
celebrity NFL coaches right off the bat and the huge crowd at
Homewood Field, to go along with the cool style contrast between
Maryland's new-age Under Armour state-flag black uniforms and Johns
Hopkins' throwback Nike whites, complete with helmet stickers to
replicate the olden times.

Duke was one week removed from needing a fourth-quarter comeback
to beat Marist, 11-10, and generally didn't know the identity of
its team. Virginia entered behind a pair of ACC wins against
Maryland and North Carolina in which the Cavs put away top-10 teams
in the second half and had a solid sense of how they did it. But
Virginia never showed its muscle on Friday.

Duke senior long stick CJ Costabile, if he didn't win a faceoff
against any of four Virginia takers, wrought havoc in the midfield
after it with a check and scooping a ground ball. He had nine of
those. Goalie Dan Wigrizer had maybe the game of his career, making
14 saves. During Duke's amazing 6-0 second-half run, Virginia
barely had the ball. And when it did, the Blue Devils' game plan
against Steele Stanwick worked wonders. Duke used its big athletic
defensemen to stay on Stanwick's hands, deny passing lanes as best
they could and not let the Cavaliers' two-man pick game thwart
them. Six-foot-four, 205-pound sophomore close defenseman Henry
Lobb and 6-foot-4, 211-pound fellow sophomore defenseman Chris
Hipps (a former Texas high school football player) drew the
assignment around the cage most of the time and limited the
Tewaaraton Award favorite to three points, with two assists coming
in the fourth quarter with the game out of hand.

The Senior Night crowd of 7,234 gave Stanwick a standing ovation
when he was honored last during pregame ceremonies, but their buzz
wore off in the first half and was completely gone in the second
half. As Duke piled on the goals, there was, for Virginia fans,
that painful noise coming from the visiting faithful while the rest
of the stadium grew silent. Some left early. After one Duke goal, I
heard the ping from a metal bat at the Virginia-North Carolina
baseball game being played next door.

"It's disappointing," Stanwick said on the field after the game.
"You always want to play well, especially on Senior Night with this
type of crowd. We should've played better than we did. It's a long
season, and we know that. We're not going to point our fingers.
We've just got to get better. At this point last year, we weren't
doing too well. We have plenty of time to turn it around. We don't
need to freak out or anything. We just need to play better."

4. Rivalries on Campus

Speaking of Duke-Virginia and Maryland-Hopkins, there is nothing
like great on-campus college rivalry games and the atmospheres they
create. The first fans arrived at Klockner Stadium in
Charlottesville two hours early to set up folding chairs and
blankets on the hill opposite the metal bleachers. Homewood Field
attracted a sold-out crowd of 8,500, including two of the NFL's 32
head coaches. Army-Navy at West Point had more than 10,000
spectators and, in the Mountain time zone, Denver and undefeated
Loyola played in front of 2,547 fans at Peter Barton Stadium.
Michigan counted lacrosse game-only attendance (4,458) in the
Battle at the Big House against Ohio State, held after the
Wolverines' spring football game.

5. Northwestern-North Carolina

In another big game from the weekend, the Northwestern women
held North Carolina scoreless for 29 minutes in the second half
– just like the Maryland men did to Hopkins – and the top-ranked Wildcats edged UNC 8-7 before 1,534
spectators at Lakeside Field. Northwestern trailed 6-4 at
halftime but turned the storyline of the game on the draw. UNC had
won eight of 11 draw controls in the first half, but the Wildcats
secured all six after halftime. Reigning ALC Rookie of the Year
Alyssa Leonard had five of them.

Taylor Thornton had a career-best six ground balls, caused two
turnovers, had two draw controls and scored the first two goals of
the second half to tie the score at 6. Shannon Smith scored what
held up as the game-winner to put NU up 8-6 with 9:41 left.